Local residents and ex-mining families were outraged when news came through that Dewsbury Conservative Association was intending to have their annual dinner at the National Coal Mining Museum at the former Caphouse colliery in Overton near Wakefield.

Socialist Party members and other trade unionists took part in a march and rally in Barnsley on 15 October in support of school cleaners, the 'Kinsley 3', who have been on strike for over six weeks, writes Jon Sibbald, Wakefield and Pontefract Socialist Party.

A Yorkshire council has permitted the UK's first fracking operation since 2011. The Socialist Party opposes fracking, and fights for public ownership of energy and mass investment in green technology. Fracking is destructive wherever it happens. Anti-fracking campaigners must call for a ban on it everywhere - not just, as some prominent activists are demanding, in places of scenic beauty.

Elections took place on 5 May for the Scottish Parliament, the National Assembly for Wales, the Greater London Authority, and for 124 local authorities in England. The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition stood to show opposition to the cuts consensus.

Four fracking licences have been granted in the Wakefield District area to Hutton Energy and Igas which would completely surround the city of Wakefield and turn the whole area into a massive industrial complex, writes John Sibbald, Wakefield and Pontefract Socialist Party.

As reported in the Socialist last week, Clive Walder, a longstanding Socialist Party member in the Communication Workers' Union (CWU) has had an appeal against unfair dismissal rejected. Also John Vasey, a CWU postal rep, has been sacked on what his work colleagues recognise as stitched up charges.